. o 


A ««  jf 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


CB  251  . D538  1905 
Dickinson,  G.  Lowes  1862- 
1932  . 

Letters  from  a Chinese 

n-f  f i oi  al  


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
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LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


LETTERS  FROM 

A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


BEING  AN  EASTERN  VIEW 
WESTERN  CIVILIZATION 


NEW  YORK 

McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  $ CO. 
MCMV 


OF 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  & CO. 


Published,  September,  1903 


Seventh  Impression. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN 
EDITION 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN 
EDITION 


In  venturing  to  lay  the  following  letters  before 
the  American  public,  I feel  that  I may  be  ex- 
pected to  preface  them  by  a word  of  explana- 
tion, if  not  of  apology.  Written  originally  for 
the  English,  they  touch  upon  specifically  Eng- 
lish institutions:  and  the  few  references  they 
contain  to  contemporary  history  and  politics  are 
such  as  would  naturally  be  of  interest  rather  to 
European  than  to  American  readers.  Regarded 
from  this  point  of  view,  their  publication  in  the 
United  States  might  seem  to  be  irrelevant,  and 
even  impertinent.  And  yet  I venture  to  think 
that,  if  they  have  any  significance,  it  is  of  a 
kind  that  should  appeal  with  a peculiar  force 
to  Americans.  For  their  interest,  such  as  it  is, 
depends,  not  upon  topical  allusions,  but  upon 
the  whole  contrast  suggested  between  Eastern 


Vll 


INTRODUCTION 


and  Western  ideals.  And  America,  in  a pre- 
eminent degree,  is  representative  of  the  West. 
For  a century  past  she  has  drawn  to  herself,  by 
an  irresistible  attraction,  the  boldest,  the  most 
masterful,  the  most  practically  intelligent  of  the 
spirits  of  Europe;  just  as,  by  the  same  law,  she 
has  repelled  the  sensitive,  the  contemplative,  and 
the  devout.  Unconsciously,  by  the  mere  fact  of 
her  existence,  she  has  sifted  the  nations;  the 
children  of  the  Spirit  have  slipped  through  the 
iron  net  of  her  destinies,  but  the  children  of  the 
World  she  has  gathered  into  her  granaries. 
She  has  thus  become,  in  a sense  peculiar  and 
unique,  the  type  and  exemplar  of  the  Western 
world.  Over  her  unencumbered  plains  the 
Genius  of  Industry  ranges  unchallenged,  naked, 
unashamed.  Whereas,  in  Europe,  it  has  still  to 
fight  for  its  supremacy;  for  there  it  is  con- 
fronted with  the  debris  of  an  earlier  society, 
with  ideals,  habits,  institutions,  monuments,  tra- 
ditions, alien  to  its  achievement  and  incompre- 
hensible to  its  aims.  Cathedral  churches,  gray 
in  the  north  and  sublime  as  the  cliffs  and  the 
viii 


INTRODUCTION 


clouds,  exuberant  in  the  south  with  color  and 
form  like  the  lovely  landscape  they  adorn,  tes- 
tify to  the  passage  of  a religion  which,  whatever 
its  defects,  had  at  least  the  merit  of  spiritual 
audacity.  Splendid  palaces,  manors,  and  parks, 
ancient  moss-grown  cottages,  perpetuate  the  tra- 
dition of  ranks  and  orders,  ancient,  hereditary, 
and  fixed.  Titles,  forms,  manners,  habits,  a whole 
ritual  of  life,  proclaim  a standard,  vanishing  no 
doubt,  of  merit  and  of  duty,  not  yet  convertible 
into  terms  of  money.  A conception  that  leisure 
may  be  noble,  and  that  activity  may  be  base, 
that  there  is  an  inner,  as  well  as  an  outer  life, 
and  that  the  latter,  on  any  reasonable  estimate, 
has  value  only  as  minister  to  the  former,  such  a 
conception  still  survives,  efficient  in  individual 
lives,  and  embodied  in  works  of  literature  and 
of  art.  In  Europe,  in  a word,  the  modern  spirit 
has  to  contend  with  an  ancient  culture;  and  its 
methods  and  results  are  modified  and  trans- 
formed by  the  conflict.  But  in  America  it  is 
free;  and  whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  my 
analysis  of  its  character  and  operation,  should 


IX 


INTRODUCTION 


be  illustrated,  one  would  expect,  on  a larger 
scale,  in  bolder  and  more  uncompromising  man- 
ifestations, on  this  continent  than  in  any  of  the 
countries  of  Europe.  Whether  that  be  so  or  not, 
I must  leave  to  the  candor  of  my  American 
readers.  But  if  it  be,  then,  as  I cannot  but 
think,  a serious  issue  is  raised  as  to  the  future 
not  merely  of  the  United  States,  but  of  the  whole 
Western  world. 

For  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize  that  the 
destinies  of  Europe  are  closely  bound  up  with 
those  of  this  country;  and  that  what  is  at  stake 
in  the  development  of  the  American  Republic 
is  nothing  less  than  the  success  or  failure  of 
Western  civilization.  Endowed,  above  all  the 
nations  of  the  world,  with  intelligence,  energy, 
and  force,  unhampered  by  the  splendid  ruins  of 
a past  which,  however  great,  does  but  encumber, 
in  the  old  world,  with  fears,  hesitations,  and  re- 
grets, the  difficult  march  to  the  promised  land 
of  the  future,  combining  the  magnificent  enthu- 
siasm of  youth  with  the  wariness  of  maturer 
years,  and  animated  by  a confidence  almost  re- 


x 


INTRODUCTION 


ligious  iii  their  own  destiny,  the  American 
people  are  called  upon,  it  would  seem,  to  deter- 
mine, in  a pre-eminent  degree,  the  form  that  is 
to  be  assumed  by  the  society  of  the  future. 
Upon  them  hangs  the  fate  of  the  Western  world. 
And  were  I an  American  citizen,  the  thought 
would  fill  me,  I confess,  less  with  exultation  than 
with  anxious  and  grave  reflection.  I should  ask 
myself  whether  the  triumphs  gained  by  my 
countrymen  over  matter  and  space  had  been  se- 
cured at  the  cost  of  spiritual  insight  and  force; 
whether  their  immense  achievement  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  practical  arts  had  been  accom- 
panied by  any  serious  contribution  to  science, 
literature,  and  art;  whether,  in  a word,  the  soul 
had  grown  with  the  body,  or  was  tending  to 
atrophy  and  decay.  And  looking  back  over  the 
long  history  of  mankind,  considering  the  record 
of  the  nations  who  have  borne  in  succession  the 
torch  of  civilization  which  England,  even  now, 
is  handing  across  to  America,  considering  all 
that  is  disappearing  in  Europe  and  all  that  has 
not  yet  begun  to  show  itself  here,  I should  feel 


xi 


INTRODUCTION 


that  Humanity  is  standing  at  the  parting  of  the 
ways,  that  it  is  confronted  with  an  issue  of  a 
gravity  and  importance  unparalleled,  perhaps, 
since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  That  issue 
I would  put  somewhat  as  follows:  Is  that 
which  created  the  religion,  the  art,  the  specula- 
tion of  the  Past;  that  insatiable  hunger  for  Eter- 
nity which,  by  a sacramental  mystery,  has 
transubstantiated  into  the  heavenly  essence  of 
the  Ideal,  the  base  and  quotidian  elements  of  the 
Actual;  that  spirit  of  unquenchable  aspiration 
which  has  assumed,  in  its  tireless  quest  for  em- 
bodiment, forms  so  alluring,  so  terrible,  so  di- 
vine, which  has  luxuriated  in  the  jungle  of  Hin- 
doo myths,  blossomed  in  the  Pantheon  of  the 
Greeks,  suffered  on  the  cross,  perished  at  the 
stake,  wasted  in  the  cloister  and  the  cell,  which 
has  given  life  to  marble,  substance  to  color, 
structure  to  fugitive  sound,  which  has  fashioned 
a palace  of  fire  and  cloud  to  inhabit  for  its  de- 
sire, and  deemed  it,  for  its  beauty,  more  dear 
and  more  real  than  kingdoms  of  iron  and  gold ; 
— is  that  hunger,  in  the  future  as  in  the  past. 


INTRODUCTION 


to  harass  and  hunt  us  from  our  styes?  Is  that 
spirit  to  urge  as  of  old  the  reluctant  wheels  of 
our  destiny?  Or  are  we  to  fill  our  belly  with 
the  husks  of  comfort,  security,  and  peace?  To 
crush  in  the  dust  under  our  Juggernaut  car  that 
delicate  charioteer?  Are  we  to  be  spirits  or  in- 
telligent brutes;  men  or  mere  machines?  That 
is  the  question  now  put,  as  it  has  never  been  put 
before,  to  the  nations  of  the  West,  and  pre-em- 
inently to  the  people  of  these  States.  Doubtless, 
were  I an  American,  I should  not  question  the 
capacity  of  my  countrymen  to  answer  it,  and  to 
answer  it  in  the  best  and  most  fruitful  sense. 
Yet  the  consciousness  of  the  immensity  of  the 
problem  would,  I think,  check  at  the  birth  any 
tendency  which  I might  otherwise  have  indulged 
to  premature  exultation.  For  I should  feel  that 
the  work  had  hardly  been  begun,  that  the  foun- 
dations were  barely  laid ; nay,  that  the  very  plan 
of  the  building  was  not  yet  drawn  out.  And 
looking  across  the  ocean,  to  Europe  and  to  the 
far  East,  I should  be  anxious,  not  indeed  to  im- 
itate the  forms,  but  to  appropriate  the  inspira- 


xm 


INTRODUCTION 


tion  of  that  ancient  world  which  created  man- 
ners, laws,  religion,  art,  whose  history  is  the 
record  not  merely  of  the  body,  but  of  the  soul 
of  mankind,  and  whose  spirit,  already  escaping 
from  the  forms  in  which  it  had  found  a partial 
embodiment,  is  hovering  even  now  at  your  gates 
in  quest  of  a new  and  more  perfect  incarnation. 
Will  you  not  receive  it?  I do  not  doubt  that  you 
will,  if  not  to-day,  then  to-morrow,  if  not  to- 
morrow, then  the  day  after.  And  if,  in  any 
smallest  way,  these  few  imperfect  pages  may 
contribute  to  prepare  for  it  a welcome  among 
you,  you  perhaps  will  pardon  their  defects,  in 
recognition  of  a sincere  intention,  and  will  tol- 
erate, even  from  a stranger,  a certain  freedom 
of  speech  which  otherwise  you  might  not  unnat- 
urally resent  as  an  impertinence. 


Xiv 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


I 


Recent  events  in  China  have  brought  into  new 
prominence  at  once  the  fundamental  antagonism 
between  Eastern  and  Western  civilization,  and 
that  ignorance  and  contempt  of  the  one  for  the 
other  which  is  mainly  responsible  for  the  present 
situation.  In  the  face  of  the  tragedy  that  is  being 
enacted,  I have  long  held  my  peace.  But  a grow- 
ing sense  of  indignation,  and  a hope,  perhaps 
illusory,  that  I may  contribute  to  remove  certain 
misunderstandings,  have  impelled  me  at  last  to 
open  my  lips,  and  to  lay  before  the  British  public 
some  views  which  have  long  been  crying  for  ut- 
terance. Of  the  immediate  crisis  I do  not  pro- 
pose to  speak.  It  is  my  object  rather  to  pro- 
mote a juster  estimate  of  my  countrymen  and 
their  policy,  by  explaining,  as  far  as  I am  able, 
the  way  in  which  we  regard  Western  civilization, 
and  the  reasons  we  have  for  desiring  to  exclude 
its  influences.  For  such  a task  I conceive  myself 
[3] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  be  not  altogether  unfit.  A long  residence  in 
England  gives  me  some  right  to  speak  of  your 
institutions;  while  absence  from  my  own  country 
has  not  disqualified  me  to  speak  of  ours.  A 
Chinaman  remains  always  a Chinaman ; and 
much  as  I admire  in  some  of  its  aspects  the 
achievement  of  Western  civilization,  I have  yet 
seen  nothing  which  could  make  me  regret  that  I 
was  born  a citizen  of  the  East.  To  Englishmen 
this  may  seem  a strange  confession.  You  are 
accustomed  to  regard  us  as  barbarians,  and  not 
unnaturally,  for  it  is  only  on  the  occasions  when 
we  murder  your  compatriots  that  your  attention 
is  powerfully  drawn  toward  us.  From  such 
spasmodic  outbreaks  you  are  apt  overhastily  to 
infer  that  we  are  a nation  of  cold-blooded  assas- 
sins; a conclusion  as  reasonable  as  would  be  an 
inference  from  the  present  conduct  of  your 
troops  in  China  to  the  general  character  of  West- 
ern civilization.  We  are  not  to  be  judged  by 
the  acts  of  our  mobs,  nor  even,  I may  add,  by 
those  of  our  Government,  for  the  Government  in 
China  does  not  represent  the  nation.  Yet  even 
[4] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHIDES 


OFFICIAL 


those  acts  (strongly  as  they  are  condemned  by 
all  educated  Chinamen)  deserve,  I venture  to 
think,  on  the  part  of  Europeans,  a consideration 
more  grave,  and  a less  intemperate  reprobation, 
than  they  have  hitherto  received  among  you. 
For  they  are  expressions  of  a feeling  which  is, 
and  must  always  be,  the  most  potent  factor  in 
our  relations  with  the  West — our  profound  mis- 
trust and  dislike  of  your  civilization.  This  feel- 
ing you,  naturally  enough,  attribute  to  prejudice 
and  ignorance.  In  reality,  I venture  to  think,  it 
is  based  upon  reason ; and  for  this  point  of  view 
I would  ask  the  serious  and  patient  considera- 
tion of  my  readers. 

Our  civilization  is  the  oldest  in  the  world.  It 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  the  best;  but  neither,  I 
submit,  does  it  follow  that  it  is  the  worst.  On 
the  contrary,  such  antiquity  is,  at  any  rate,  a 
proof  that  our  institutions  have  guaranteed  to  us 
a stability  for  which  we  search  in  vain  among  the 
nations  of  Europe.  But  not  only  is  our  civiliza- 
tion stable,  it  also  embodies,  as  we  think,  a moral 
order ; while  in  yours  we  detect  only  an  economic 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


chaos.  Whether  your  religion  be  better  than 
ours,  I do  not  at  present  dispute ; but  it  is  certain 
that  it  has  less  influence  on  your  society.  You 
profess  Christianity,  but  your  civilization  has 
never  been  Christian;  whereas  ours  is  Confucian 
through  and  through.  But  to  say  that  it  is 
Confucian,  is  to  say  that  it  is  moral;  or,  at  least 
(for  I do  not  wish  to  beg  the  question),  that 
moral  relations  are  those  which  it  primarily  con- 
templates. Whereas,  with  you  (so  it  seems  to 
us)  economic  relations  come  first,  and  upon  these 
you  endeavor,  afterward,  to  graft  as  much 
morality  as  they  will  admit. 

This  point  I may  illustrate  by  a comparison 
between  your  view  of  the  family  and  ours.  To 
you,  so  far  as  a foreigner  can  perceive,  the  fam- 
ily is  merely  a means  for  nourishing  and  pro- 
tecting the  child  until  he  is  of  age  to  look  after 
himself.  As  early  as  may  be,  you  send  your 
boys  away  to  a public  school,  where  they  quickly 
emancipate  themselves  from  the  influences  of 
their  home.  As  soon  as  they  are  of  age,  you  send 
them  out,  as  you  say,  to  “make  their  fortune”; 

' [6] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


and  from  that  moment,  often  enough,  as  they 
cease  to  be  dependent  on  their  parents,  so  they 
cease  to  recognize  obligations  toward  them. 
They  may  go  where  they  will,  do  what  they  will, 
earn  and  spend  as  they  choose;  and  it  is  at  their 
own  option  whether  or  no  they  maintain  their 
family  ties.  With  you  the  individual  is  the  unit, 
and  all  the  units  are  free.  No  one  is  tied,  but 
also  no  one  is  rooted.  Your  society,  to  use  your 
own  word,  is  “progressive”;  you  are  always 
“moving  on.”  Everyone  feels  it  a duty  (and 
in  most  cases  it  is  a necessity)  to  strike  out  a 
new  line  for  himself.  To  remain  in  the  position 
in  which  you  were  born  you  consider  a disgrace ; 
a man,  to  be  a man,  must  venture,  struggle,  com- 
pete, and  win.  To  this  characteristic  of  your  so- 
ciety is  to  be  attributed,  no  doubt,  its  immense 
activity,  and  its  success  in  all  material  arts. 
But  to  this,  also,  is  due  the  feature  that  most 
strikes  a Chinaman — its  unrest,  its  confusion, 
its  lack  (as  we  think)  of  morality.  Among  you 
no  one  is  contented,  no  one  has  leisure  to  live, 
so  intent  are  all  on  increasing  the  means  of  liv- 

[7] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ing.  The  “cash-nexus”  (to  borrow  a phrase  of 
one  of  your  own  writers)  is  the  only  relation  you 
recognize  among  men. 

Now,  to  us  of  the  East  all  this  is  the  mark  of 
a barbarous  society.  We  measure  the  degree  of 
civilization  not  by  accumulation  of  the  means  of 
living,  but  by  the  character  and  value  of  the  life 
lived.  Where  there  are  no  humane  and  stable 
relations,  no  reverence  for  the  past,  no  respect 
even  for  the  present,  but  only  a cupidinous  rav- 
ishment of  the  future,  there,  we  think,  there  is 
no  true  society.  And  we  would  not  if  we  could 
rival  you  in  your  wealth,  your  sciences,  and  your 
arts,  if  we  must  do  so  at  the  cost  of  imitating 
your  institutions. 

In  all  these  matters,  our  own  procedure  is  the 
opposite  to  yours.  We  look  first  to  the  society 
and  then  to  the  individual.  Among  us,  it  is  a 
rule  that  a man  is  born  into  precisely  those 
relations  in  which  he  is  to  continue  during  the 
course  of  his  life.  As  he  begins,  so  he  ends,  a 
member  of  his  family  group,  and  to  this  condi- 
tion the  whole  theory  and  practice  of  his  life 
’[8] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


conforms.  He  is  taught  to  worship  his  ancestors, 
to  honor  and  obey  his  parents,  and  to  prepare 
himself  from  an  early  age  for  the  duties  of  a 
husband  and  a father.  Marriage  does  not  dis- 
solve the  family;  the  husband  remains,  and  the 
wife  becomes  a member  of  his  group  of  kinsmen. 
And  this  group  is  the  social  unit.  It  has  its 
common  plot  of  ground,  its  common  altar  and 
rites,  its  tribunal  for  settling  disputes  among  its 
members.  No  man  in  China  is  isolated,  save  by 
his  own  fault.  If  it  is  not  so  easy  for  him  to 
grow  rich  as  with  you,  neither  is  it  so  easy  for 
him  to  starve;  if  he  has  not  the  motive  to  com- 
pete, neither  has  he  the  temptation  to  cheat  and 
oppress.  Free  at  once  from  the  torment  of  am- 
bition and  the  apprehension  of  distress,  he  has 
leisure  to  spare  from  the  acquisition  of  the  means 
of  living  for  life  itself.  He  has  both  the  instinct 
and  the  opportunity  to  appreciate  the  gifts  of 
Nature,  to  cultivate  manners,  and  to  enter  into 
humane  and  disinterested  relations  with  his  fel- 
lows. The  result  is  a type  which  we  cannot  but 
regard  as  superior,  both  morally  and  aesthetically, 

[ 9 ] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  the  great  bulk  of  your  own  citizens  in  Europe. 
And  while  we  recognize  the  greatness  of  your 
practical  and  scientific  achievements,  yet  we  find 
it  impossible  unreservedly  to  admire  a civiliza- 
tion which  has  produced  manners  so  coarse, 
morals  so  low,  and  an  appearance  so  unlovely  as 
those  with  which  we  are  constantly  confronted 
in  your  great  cities.  Admitting  that  we  are  not 
what  you  call  a progressive  people,  we  yet  per- 
ceive that  progress  may  be  bought  too  dear. 
We  prefer  our  own  moral  to  your  material  ad- 
vantages, and  we  are  determined  to  cling  to  the 
institutions  which,  we  believe,  insure  us  the  for- 
mer, even  at  the  risk  of  excluding  ourselves  from 
the  latter. 


[10] 


II 


In  my  last  letter  I endeavored  to  give  some 
general  account  of  the  salient  differences  be- 
tween your  civilization  and  ours.  Such  differ- 
ences have  led  inevitably  to  conflict;  and  recent 
events  might  seem  to  give  some  color  to  the  idea 
that  in  that  conflict  it  is  we  who  have  been  the 
aggressors.  But  nothing  in  fact  can  be  further 
from  the  truth.  Left  to  ourselves,  we  should 
never  have  sought  intercourse  with  the  West. 
We  have  no  motive  to  do  so;  for  we  desire  neither 
to  proselytize  nor  to  trade.  We  believe,  it  is 
true,  that  our  religion  is  more  rational  than  yours, 
our  morality  higher,  and  our  institutions  more 
perfect;  but  we  recognize  that  what  is  suited  to 
us  may  be  ill  adapted  to  others.  We  do  not  con- 
ceive that  we  have  a mission  to  redeem  or  to 
civilize  the  world,  still  less  that  that  mission  is 
to  be  accomplished  by  the  methods  of  fire  and 

[U] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


sword;  and  we  are  thankful  enough  if  we  can 
solve  our  own  problems,  without  burdening  our- 
selves with  those  of  other  peoples. 

And  as  we  are  not  led  to  interfere  with  you  by 
the  desire  to  convert  you,  so  are  we  not  driven 
to  do  so  by  the  necessities  of  trade.  Economi- 
cally, as  well  as  politically,  we  are  sufficient  to 
ourselves.  What  we  consume  we  produce,  and 
what  we  produce  we  consume.  We  do  not  re- 
quire, and  we  have  not  sought,  the  products  of 
other  nations;  and  we  hold  it  no  less  imprudent 
than  unjust  to  make  war  on  strangers  in  order 
to  open  their  markets.  A society,  we  conceive, 
that  is  to  be  politically  stable  must  be  economi- 
cally independent;  and  we  regard  an  extensive 
foreign  trade  as  necessarily  a source  of  social 
demoralization. 

In  these,  as  in  all  other  points,  your  principle 
is  the  opposite  to  ours.  You  believe,  not  only 
that  your  religion  is  the  only  true  one,  but  that  it 
is  your  duty  to  impose  it  on  all  other  nations,  if 
need  be,  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  And  this 
motive  of  aggression  is  reinforced  by  another 
L 12  1 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


still  more  potent.  Economically,  your  society  is 
so  constituted  that  it  is  constantly  on  the  verge 
of  starvation.  You  cannot  produce  what  you 
need  to  consume,  nor  consume  what  you  need 
to  produce.  It  is  matter  of  life  and  death  to  you 
to  find  markets  in  which  you  may  dispose  of  your 
manufactures,  and  from  which  you  may  derive 
your  food  and  raw  material.  Such  a market 
China  is,  or  might  be;  and  the  opening  of  this 
market  is  in  fact  the  motive,  thinly  disguised,  of 
all  your  dealings  with  us  in  recent  years.  The 
justice  and  morality  of  such  a policy  I do  not 
propose  to  discuss.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  product  of 
sheer  material  necessity,  and  upon  such  a ground 
it  is  idle  to  dispute.  I shall  confine  myself  there- 
fore to  an  endeavor  to  present  our  view  of  the 
situation,  and  to  explain  the  motives  we  have  for 
resenting  your  aggression. 

To  the  ordinary  British  trader  it  seems  no 
doubt  a strange  thing  that  we  should  object  to 
what  he  describes  as  the  opening  out  of  our 
national  resources.  Viewing  everything,  as  he 
habitually  does,  from  the  standpoint  of  profit  and 
[13] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


loss,  he  conceives  that  if  it  can  be  shown  that  a 
certain  course  will  lead  to  the  increase  of  wealth, 
it  follows  that  that  is  the  course  that  ought  to  be 
adopted.  The  opening  of  China  to  his  capital 
and  his  trade  he  believes  will  have  this  result; 
and  he  concludes  that  it  is  our  interest  to  wel- 
come rather  than  to  resist  his  enterprise.  From 
his  point  of  view  he  is  justified;  but  his  point  of 
view  is  not  ours.  We  are  accustomed,  before 
adopting  any  grave  measure  of  policy,  to  esti- 
mate its  effects  not  merely  on  the  sum  total  of 
our  wealth,  but  (which  we  conceive  to  be  a very 
different  thing)  on  our  national  well-being. 
You,  as  always,  are  thinking  of  the  means  of 
living;  we,  of  the  quality  of  the  life  lived.  And 
when  you  ask  us,  as  you  do  in  effect,  to  transform 
our  whole  society,  to  convert  ourselves  from  a 
nation  of  agriculturists  to  a nation  of  traders 
and  manufacturers,  to  sacrifice  to  an  imaginary 
prosperity  our  political  and  economic  indepen- 
dence, and  to  revolutionize  not  only  our  industry, 
but  our  manners,  morals,  and  institutions,  we 
may  be  pardoned  if  we  first  take  a critical  look 

[14] 


BETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


at  the  effects  which  have  been  produced  among 
yourselves  by  the  conditions  you  urge  us  to  in- 
troduce in  China. 

The  results  of  such  a survey,  we  venture  to 
think,  are  not  encouraging.  Like  the  prince  in 
the  fable,  you  seem  to  have  released  from  his 
prison  the  genie  of  competition,  only  to  find  that 
you  are  unable  to  control  him.  Your  legislation 
for  the  past  hundred  years  is  a perpetual  and 
fruitless  effort  to  regulate  the  disorders  of  your 
economic  system.  Your  poor,  your  drunk,  your 
incompetent,  your  sick,  your  aged,  ride  you  like 
a nightmare.  You  have  dissolved  all  human  and 
personal  ties,  and  you  endeavor,  in  vain,  to  re- 
place them  by  the  impersonal  activity  of  the 
State.  The  salient  characteristic  of  your  civili- 
zation is  its  irresponsibility.  You  have  liberated 
forces  you  cannot  control;  you  are  caught  your- 
selves in  your  own  levers  and  cogs.  In  every 
department  of  business  you  are  substituting  for 
the  individual  the  company,  for  the  workman 
the  tool.  The  making  of  dividends  is  the  univer- 
sal preoccupation;  the  well-being  of  the  laborer 
[15] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


is  no  one’s  concern  but  the  State’s.  And  this 
concern  even  the  State  is  incompetent  to  under- 
take, for  the  factors  by  which  it  is  determined 
are  beyond  its  control.  You  depend  on  varia- 
tions of  supply  and  demand  which  you  can 
neither  determine  nor  anticipate.  The  failure 
of  a harvest,  the  modification  of  a tariff  in  some 
remote  country,  dislocates  the  industry  of  mill- 
ions, thousands  of  miles  away.  You  are  at  the 
mercy  of  a prospector’s  luck,  an  inventor’s 
genius,  a woman’s  caprice — nay,  you  are  at  the 
mercy  of  your  own  instruments.  Your  capital 
is  alive,  and  cries  for  food;  starve  it  and  it  turns 
and  throttles  you.  You  produce,  not  because 
you  will,  but  because  you  must;  you  consume, 
not  what  you  choose,  but  what  is  forced  upon 
you.  Never  was  any  trade  so  bound  as  this 
which  you  call  free;  but  it  is  bound,  not  by  a rea- 
sonable will,  but  by  the  accumulated  irrationality 
of  caprice. 

Such  is  the  internal  economy  of  your  State,  as 
it  presents  itself  to  a Chinaman;  and  not  more 
encouraging  is  the  spectacle  of  your  foreign  re- 
[16] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


lations.  Commercial  intercourse  between  na- 
tions, it  was  supposed  some  fifty  years  ago, 
would  inaugurate  an  era  of  peace ; and  there 
appear  to  be  many  among  you  who  still  cling  to 
this  belief.  But  never  was  belief  more  plainly 
contradicted  by  the  facts.  The  competition  for 
markets  bids  fair  to  be  a more  fruitful  cause  of 
war  than  was  ever  in  the  past  the  ambition  of 
princes  or  the  bigotry  of  priests.  The  peoples 
of  Europe  fling  themselves,  like  hungry  beasts 
of  prey,  on  every  yet  unexploited  quarter  of  the 
globe.  Hitherto  they  have  confined  their  acts 
of  spoliation  to  those  whom  they  regard  as  out- 
side their  own  pale.  But  always,  while  they  di- 
vide the  spoil,  they  watch  one  another  with  a 
jealous  eye;  and  sooner  or  later,  when  there  is 
nothing  left  to  divide,  they  will  fall  upon  one 
another.  That  is  the  real  meaning  of  your  ar- 
maments ; you  must  devour  or  be  devoured.  And 
it  is  precisely  those  trade  relations,  which  it  was 
thought  would  knit  you  in  the  bonds  of  peace, 
which,  by  making  every  one  of  you  cut-throat 
rivals  of  the  others,  have  brought  you  within 

[17] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


reasonable  distance  of  a general  war  of  exter- 
mination. 

In  thus  characterizing  your  civilization,  I am 
not  (I  think)  carried  away  by  a foolish  Chauvin- 
ism, I do  not  conceive  the  inhabitants  of  Europe 
to  be  naturally  more  foolish  and  depraved  than 
those  of  China.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a cardinal 
tenet  of  our  faith,  that  human  nature  is  every- 
where the  same,  and  that  it  is  circumstances  that 
make  it  good  or  bad.  If,  then,  your  economy, 
internal  or  external,  be  really  as  defective  as  we 
conceive,  the  cause  we  think  must  be  sought  not 
in  any  radical  defect  in  your  national  character, 
but  in  precisely  those  political  and  social  institu- 
tions which  you  are  urging  us  to  adopt  at  home. 
Can  you  wonder,  in  the  circumstances,  that  we 
resist  your  influence  by  any  means  at  our  com- 
mand; and  that  the  more  intelligent  among  us, 
while  they  regret  the  violence  to  which  your 
agents  have  been  exposed,  yet  feel  that  it  weighs 
as  nothing  in  the  scale,  when  set  against  the 
intolerable  evils  which  would  result  from  the 
success  of  your  enterprise? 

[ 18] 


Ill 


In  one  of  your  journals  I recently  read  that 
“the  civilization  of  China”  is  the  ultimate  object 
of  the  nations  of  Europe.  If  so,  the  methods 
they  adopt  to  attain  their  end  are  singular  in- 
deed : but  of  these  I do  not  trust  myself  to  speak. 
Looting,  wanton  destruction,  cold-blooded  mur- 
der, and  rape,  these  are  the  things  which  you 
do  not,  I know,  here  in  England  approve,  which 
you  would  prevent,  I am  convinced,  if  you  could, 
and  which  I am  willing  to  set  down  to  the  license 
of  ill-disciplined  troops.  It  is  for  another  pur- 
pose than  that  of  idle  deprecation  that  I refer 
to  them  in  this  place.  The  question  always  be- 
fore my  mind  when  you  speak  of  civilization  is 
this:  What  kind  of  men  has  your  civilization 
produced?  And  to  such  a question  current 
events  in  China  seem  to  suggest  an  answer  not 
altogether  reassuring.  But  that  answer  I do 
not  press.  It  may  be  that  all  culture,  ours  as 
much  as  yours,  is  no  more  than  a veneer;  that 

[19] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


deep  in  the  den  of  every  human  heart  lurks  the 
brute,  ready  to  leap  on  its  prey  when  chance  or 
design  has  unbarred  the  gates.  We  at  any  rate, 
in  China,  lie  under  the  same  condemnation  as 
you;  and  our  reproaches,  like  yours,  fly  back  to 
the  mouths  of  them  that  utter  them.  I pass, 
therefore,  from  scenes  like  these  to  normal  con- 
ditions of  life.  What  manner  of  men,  I ask, 
are  we,  what  manner  of  men  are  you,  that  you 
should  take  upon  yourselves  to  call  us  barba- 
rians ? 

What  manner  of  men  are  we?  The  question 
is  hard  to  answer.  Turning  it  over  in  my 
thoughts,  hour  after  hour,  day  after  day,  I can 
hit  on  no  better  device  to  bring  home  to  you 
something  of  what  is  in  my  mind  than  to  en- 
deavor to  set  down  here,  as  faithfully  as  1 can, 
a picture  that  never  ceases  to  haunt  my  memory 
as  I walk  in  these  dreary  winter  days  the  streets 
of  your  black  Metropolis. 

Far  away  in  the  East,  under  sunshine  such  as 
you  never  saw  (for  even  such  light  as  you  have 
you  stain  and  infect  with  sooty  smoke),  on  the 
[20] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


shore  of  a broad  river  stands  the  house  where  I 
was  born.  It  is  one  among  thousands ; but  every 
one  stands  in  its  own  garden,  simply  painted  in 
white  or  gray,  modest,  cheerful,  and  clean.  For 
many  miles  along  the  valley,  one  after  the  other, 
they  lift  their  blue-  or  red-tiled  roofs  out  of  a 
sea  of  green;  while  here  and  there  glitters  out 
over  a clump  of  trees  the  gold  enamel  of  some 
tall  pagoda.  The  river,  crossed  by  frequent 
bridges  and  crowded  with  barges  and  junks, 
bears  on  its  clear  stream  the  traffic  of  thriving 
village-markets.  For  prosperous  peasants  peo- 
ple all  the  district,  owning  and  tilling  the  fields 
their  fathers  owned  and  tilled  before  them. 
The  soil  on  which  they  work,  they  may  say,  they 
and  their  ancestors  have  made.  For  see!  almost 
to  the  summit  what  once  were  barren  hills  are 
waving  green  with  cotton  and  rice,  sugar, 
oranges,  and  tea.  Water  drawn  from  the  river- 
bed girdles  the  slopes  with  silver;  and  falling 
from  channel  to  channel  in  a thousand  bright 
cascades,  plashing  in  cisterns,  chuckling  in  pipes, 
soaking  and  oozing  in  the  soil,  distributes  freely 
[21] 


LETTERS  FROM  A.  CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  all  alike  fertility,  verdure,  and  life.  Hour 
after  hour  you  may  traverse,  by  tortuous  paths, 
over  tiny  bridges,  the  works  of  the  generations 
who  have  passed,  the  labors  of  their  children  of 
to-day;  till  you  reach  the  point  where  man  suc- 
cumbs and  Nature  has  her  way,  covering  the 
highest  crags  with  a mantle  of  azure  and  gold 
and  rose,  gardenia,  clematis,  azalea,  growing 
luxuriantly  wild.  How  often  here  have  I sat 
for  hours  in  a silence  so  intense  that,  as  one  of 
our  poets  has  said,  “you  may  hear  the  shadows 
of  the  trees  rustling  on  the  ground”;  a silence 
broken  only  now  and  again  from  far  below  by 
voices  of  laborers  calling  across  the  water- 
courses, or,  at  evening  or  dawn,  by  the  sound 
of  gongs  summoning  to  worship  from  the  tem- 
ples in  the  valley.  Such  silence ! Such  sounds ! 
Such  perfume!  Such  color!  The  senses  re- 
spond to  their  objects;  they  grow  exquisite  to 
a degree  you  cannot  well  conceive  in  your  north- 
ern climate;  and  beauty  pressing  in  from  with- 
out moulds  the  spirit  and  mind  insensibly  to 
harmony  with  herself.  If  in  China  we  have  man- 
[22] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ners,  if  we  have  art,  if  we  have  morals,  the 
reason,  to  those  who  can  see,  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Nature  has  taught  us;  and  so  far,  we  are  only- 
more  fortunate  than  you.  But,  also,  we  have  had 
the  grace  to  learn  her  lesson ; and  that,  we  think, 
we  may  ascribe  to  our  intelligence.  For,  con- 
sider, here  in  this  lovely  valley  live  thousands  of 
souls  without  any  law  save  that  of  custom,  with- 
out any  rule  save  that  of  their  own  hearths. 
Industrious  they  are,  as  you  hardly  know  indus- 
try in  Europe;  but  it  is  the  industry  of  free  men 
working  for  their  kith  and  kin,  on  the  lands  they 
received  from  their  fathers,  to  transmit,  enriched 
by  their  labors,  to  their  sons.  They  have  no 
other  ambition ; they  do  not  care  to  amass  wealth ; 
and  if  in  each  generation  some  must  needs  go 
out  into  the  world,  it  is  with  the  hope,  not  com- 
monly frustrated,  to  return  to  the  place  of  their 
birth  and  spend  their  declining  years  among  the 
scenes  and  faces  that  were  dear  to  their  youth. 
Among  such  a people  there  is  no  room  for  fierce, 
indecent  rivalries.  None  is  master,  none  servant; 
but  equality,  concrete  and  real,  regulates  and 
[23] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


sustains  their  intercourse.  Healthy  toil,  suffi- 
cient leisure,  frank  hospitality,  a content  born 
of  habit  and  undisturbed  by  chimerical  ambi- 
tions, a sense  of  beauty  fostered  by  the  loveliest 
Nature  in  the  world,  and  finding  expression  in 
gracious  and  dignified  manners  where  it  is  not 
embodied  in  exquisite  works  of  art — such  are 
the  characteristics  of  the  people  among  whom  I 
was  born.  Does  my  memory  flatter  me?  Do  I 
idealize  the  scenes  of  my  youth?  It  may  be  so. 
But  this  I know:  that  some  such  life  as  I have 
described,  reared  on  the  basis  of  labor  on  the 
soil,  of  equality  and  justice,  does  exist  and 
flourish  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
China.  What  have  you  to  offer  in  its  place,  you 
our  would-be  civilizers?  Your  religion?  Alas! 
it  is  in  the  name  of  that  that  you  are  doing  un- 
namable  deeds!  Your  morals?  Where  shall 
we  find  them?  Your  intelligence?  Whither  has 
it  led?  What  counter-picture  have  you  to  offer 
over  here  in  England  to  this  which  I have  drawn 
of  life  in  China?  That  is  the  question  which 
I have  now  to  endeavor  to  reply. 

[24] 


IV 


In  attempting  to  lay  before  you  a characteristic 
scene  of  Chinese  life  I selected  for  the  purpose  a 
community  of  peasants.  I did  so  because  it  is 
there  that  I find  the  typical  product  of  our  civ- 
ilization. Cities,  it  is  true,  we  have,  and  cities 
as  monstrous,  perhaps,  as  yours;  but  they  are 
mere  excrescences  on  a body  politic  whose  es- 
sential constitution  is  agricultural.  With  you  all 
this  is  reversed;  and  for  that  reason  you  have 
no  country  life  deserving  the  name.  On  the  one 
hand  waste  of  common  and  moor,  on  the  other 
villas  and  parks,  laborers  poorly  clad,  wretch- 
edly housed,  and  miserably  paid,  dreary  villages, 
decaying  farms,  squalor,  brutality,  and  vice — 
such  is  the  picture  you  give,  yourselves,  of  your 
agricultural  districts.  Whatever  in  England  is 
not  urban  is  parasitic  or  moribund.  If,  then,  I 
am  to  give  an  impression  that  shall  be  candid 
and  just  of  the  best  results  of  your  civilization, 
[25] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


I must  turn  from  the  country  to  the  life  of  your 
great  cities.  And  in  doing  so  I will  not  seek  to 
win  an  easy  victory  by  dwelling  unduly  on  those 
more  obvious  points  which  you  no  less  than  I 
admit  and  deplore.  Your  swarming  slums,  your 
liquor-saloons,  your  poor-houses,  your  prisons — 
these,  it  is  true,  are  melancholy  facts.  But  the 
evils  of  which  they  are  symptoms  you  are  set- 
ting yourselves  to  cure,  and  your  efforts,  I do 
not  doubt,  may  be  attended  with  a large  measure 
of  success.  It  is  rather  the  goal  to  which  you 
seem  to  be  moving  when  you  have  done  the  best 
you  can  that  I would  choose  to  consider  in  this 
place.  Your  typical  product,  your  average  man, 
the  man  you  call  respectable,  him  it  is  that  I 
wish  to  characterize,  for  he  it  is  that  is  the  nat- 
ural and  inevitable  outcome  of  your  civilization. 
What  manner  of  man,  then,  is  he?  It  is  with 
some  hesitation  that  I set  myself  to  answer  this 
question.  I am  a stranger  among  you;  I have 
enjoyed  your  hospitality;  and  I am  loath  to 
seem  to  repay  you  with  discourtesy.  But  if  there 
be  any  service  I can  do  you,  I know  none  greater 
[26] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


than  to  bring  home  to  you,  if  I could,  without 
undue  offence,  certain  important  truths  (so  they 
seem  to  me)  to  which  you  appear  to  be  singularly 
blind.  Your  feet,  I believe,  are  set  on  the  wrong 
path;  I would  fain  warn  you;  and  useless  though 
the  warning  may  be,  it  is  offered  in  the  spirit  of 
friendship,  and  in  that  spirit,  I hope,  it  will  be 
received. 

When  I review  my  impressions  of  the  average 
English  citizen,  impressions  based  on  many 
years’  study,  what  kind  of  man  do  I see  ? I see 
one  divorced  from  Nature,  but  unreclaimed  by 
Art;  instructed,  but  not  educated;  assimilative, 
but  incapable  of  thought.  Trained  in  the  tenets 
of  a religion  in  which  he  does  not  really  believe 
— for  he  sees  it  flatly  contradicted  in  every  re- 
lation of  life— he  dimly  feels  that  it  is  prudent 
to  conceal  under  a mask  of  piety  the  atheism 
he  is  hardly  intelligent  enough  to  avow.  His 
religion  is  conventional;  and,  what  is  more  im- 
portant, his  morals  are  as  conventional  as  his 
creed.  Charity,  chastity,  self-abnegation,  con- 
tempt of  the  world  and  its  prizes — these  are  the 
[27] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


words  on  which  he  has  been  fed  from  his  child- 
hood upward.  And  words  they  have  remained, 
for  neither  has  he  anywhere  seen  them  practised 
by  others,  nor  has  it  ever  occurred  to  him  to 
practise  them  himself.  Their  influence,  while 
it  is  strong  enough  to  make  him  a chronic  hypo- 
crite, is  not  so  strong  as  to  show  him  the  hypo- 
crite he  is.  Deprived  on  the  one  hand  of  the 
support  of  a true  ethical  standard,  embodied 
in  the  life  of  the  society  of  which  he  is  a mem- 
ber, he  is  duped,  on  the  other,  by  lip-worship 
of  an  impotent  ideal.  Abandoned  thus  to  his 
instinct,  he  is  content  to  do  as  others  do,  and, 
ignoring  the  things  of  the  spirit,  to  devote  him- 
self to  material  ends.  He  becomes  a mere  tool; 
and  of  such  your  society  is  composed.  By  your 
works  you  may  be  known.  Your  triumphs  in  the 
mechanical  arts  are  the  obverse  of  your  failure 
in  all  that  calls  for  spiritual  insight.  Machinery 
of  every  kind  you  can  make  and  use  to  perfec- 
tion; but  you  cannot  build  a house,  or  write  a 
poem,  or  paint  a picture;  still  less  can  you  wor- 
ship or  aspire.  Look  at  your  streets ! Row 
[28] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


upon  row  of  little  boxes,  one  like  another,  lack- 
ing in  all  that  is  essential,  loaded  with  all  that 
is  superfluous — this  is  what  passes  among  you 
for  architecture.  Your  literature  is  the  daily 
press,  with  its  stream  of  solemn  fatuity,  of  anec- 
dotes, puzzles,  puns,  and  police-court  scandal. 
Your  pictures  are  stories  in  paint,  transcripts  of 
all  that  is  banal,  clumsily  botched  by  amateurs 
as  devoid  of  tradition  as  of  genius.  Your  outer 
sense  as  well  as  your  inner  is  dead;  you  are 
blind  and  deaf.  Ratiocination  has  taken  the 
place  of  perception;  and  your  whole  life  is  an 
infinite  syllogism  from  premises  you  have  not 
examined  to  conclusions  you  have  not  anticipated 
or  willed.  Everywhere  means,  nowhere  an  end ! 
Society  a huge  engine,  and  that  engine  itself  out 
of  gear ! Such  is  the  picture  your  civilization 
presents  to  my  imagination.  I will  not  say  that 
it  is  so  that  it  appears  to  every  intelligent  China- 
man; for  the  Chinese,  unlike  you,  are  constitu- 
tionally averse  to  drawing  up  an  indictment 
against  a nation.  If  I have  been  led  into  that 
error,  it  is  under  strong  provocation ; and  already 
[29] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


I feel  that  I owe  you  an  apology.  Yet  what  I 
have  said  I cannot  withdraw;  and  I shall  not 
regret  that  I have  spoken  if  I may  hope  that 
my  words  have  suggested  to  some  among  my 
readers  a new  sense  in  the  cry,  “China  for  the 
Chinese !” 


[30] 


V 


When  I was  first  brought  into  contact  with  the 
West  what  most  immediately  impressed  me  was 
the  character  and  range  of  your  intelligence.  I 
found  that  you  had  brought  your  minds  to  hear, 
with  singular  success,  upon  problems  which  had 
not  even  occurred  to  us  in  the  East;  that  by 
analysis  and  experiment  you  had  found  the  clue 
to  the  operation  of  the  forces  of  nature,  and  had 
turned  them  to  account  in  ways  which,  to  my  un- 
travelled imagination,  appeared  to  be  little  short 
of  miraculous.  Nor  has  familiarity  diminished 
my  admiration  for  your  achievements  in  this 
field.  I recognize  in  them  your  chief  and  most 
substantial  claim  to  superiority,  and  I am  not 
surprised  that  some  of  the  more  intelligent  of 
my  countrymen  should  be  advocating  with  ardor 
their  immediate  introduction  into  China.  I sym- 
pathize with  the  enthusiasm  of  these  reformers, 
but  I am  unable,  nevertheless]  to  endorse  their 
[31] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

policy;  and  it  may  be  worth  while  to  set  down 
here  the  reasons  which  have  led  me  to  a conclu- 
sion which  may  appear  at  first  sight  to  be 
paradoxical. 

The  truth  is  that  a study  of  your  history 
during  the  past  century  and  a closer  acquaint- 
ance with  the  structure  of  your  society  has  con- 
siderably modified  my  original  point  of  view.  I 
have  learnt  that  the  most  brilliant  discoveries, 
the  most  fruitful  applications  of  inventive 
genius,  do  not  of  themselves  suffice  for  the  well- 
being of  society;  and  that  an  intelligence  which 
is  concentrated  exclusively  on  the  production  of 
labor-saving  machines  may  easily  work  more 
harm  by  the  dislocation  of  industry  than  it  can 
accomplish  good  by  the  increase  of  wealth. 
For  the  increase  of  wealth — that  is,  of  the 
means  to  comfort — is  not,  to  my  mind,  neces- 
sarily good  in  itself ; everything  depends  on  the 
way  in  which  the  wealth  is  distributed  and  on 
its  effect  on  the  moral  character  of  the  nation. 
And  it  is  from  that  point  of  view  that  I look 
with  some  dismay  upon  the  prospect  of  the  in- 
[32] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


troduction  of  Western  methods  into  China.  An 
example  will  best  explain  my  point.  When  we 
began  to  construct  our  first  railway,  from 
Tientsin  to  Peking,  the  undertaking  excited 
among  the  neighboring  populace  an  opposition 
which  quickly  developed  into  open  riot.  The 
line  was  torn  up,  bridges  were  destroyed,  and  it 
was  impossible  to  continue  the  work.  We  there- 
fore, according  to  our  custom  in  China,  sent 
down  to  the  scene  of  action,  not  a force  of  police, 
but  an  official  to  interview  the  rioters  and  ascer- 
tain their  point  of  view.  It  was  as  usual  a per- 
fectly reasonable  one.  They  were  a boating 
population,  subsisting  by  the  traffic  of  the  canal, 
and  they  feared  that  the  railway  would  deprive 
them  of  their  means  of  livelihood.  The  Gov- 
ernment recognized  the  justice  of  their  plea; 
they  gave  the  required  guarantee  that  the  traffic 
by  water  should  not  seriously  suffer,  and  there 
was  no  further  trouble  or  disturbance.  The 
episode  is  a good  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
we  regard  these  questions.  Englishmen  to 
whom  I have  spoken  of  the  matter  have  invari- 
[»*] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ably  listened  to  my  account  with  astonishment 
not  unmingled  with  indignation.  To  them  it 
seems  a monstrous  thing  that  Government  should 
pay  any  regard  whatever  to  such  representations 
on  the  part  of  the  people.  They  speak  of  the 
laws  of  supply  and  demand,  of  the  ultimate  ab- 
sorption of  labor,  of  competition,  progress,  mo- 
bility and  the  “long-run.”  To  all  this  I listen 
with  more  or  less  comprehension  and  acquies- 
cence; but  it  cannot  conceal  from  me  the  fact 
that  the  introduction  of  new  methods  means,  at 
any  rate  for  the  moment,  so  much  dislocation  of 
labor,  so  much  poverty,  suffering,  and  starvation. 
Of  this  your  own  industrial  history  gives  abun- 
dant proof.  And  I cannot  but  note  with  regret 
and  disappointment  that  in  all  these  years  during 
which  you  have  been  perfecting  the  mechanical 
arts  you  have  not  apparently  even  attempted, 
you  certainly  have  not  attempted  with  success, 
to  devise  any  means  to  obviate  the  disturbance 
and  distress  to  which  you  have  subjected  your 
laboring  population.  This,  indeed,  is  not  sur- 
prising, for  it  is  your  custom  to  subordinate  life 
\ 34,  1 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  wealth ; but  neither,  to  a Chinaman,  is  it  en- 
couraging; and  I,  at  least,  cannot  contemplate 
without  the  gravest  apprehension  the  disorders 
which  must  inevitably  ensue  among  our  popula- 
tion of  four  hundred  millions  upon  the  intro- 
duction, on  a large  scale,  of  Western  methods 
of  industry.  You  will  say  that  the  disorder  is 
temporary;  to  me  it  appears,  in  the  West,  to  be 
chronic.  But  putting  that  aside,  what,  I may 
ask,  are  we  to  gain?  The  gain  to  you  is  pal- 
pable; so,  I think,  is  the  loss  to  us.  But  where 
is  our  gain?  The  question,  perhaps,  may  seem 
to  you  irrelevant;  but  a Chinaman  may  be  for- 
given for  thinking  it  important.  You  will  an- 
swer, no  doubt,  that  we  shall  gain  wealth. 
Perhaps  we  shall;  but  shall  we  not  lose  life? 
Shall  we  not  become  like  you?  And  can  you 
expect  us  to  contemplate  that  with  equanimity? 
What  are  your  advantages?  Your  people,  no 
doubt,  are  better  equipped  than  ours  with  some 
of  the  less  important  goods  of  life;  they  eat 
more,  drink  more,  sleep  more;  but  there  their 
superiority  ends.  They  are  less  cheerful,  less 
[35] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

contented,  less  industrious,  less  law-abiding ; their 
occupations  are  more  unhealthy  both  for  body 
and  mind;  they  are  crowded  into  cities  and  fac- 
tories, divorced  from  Nature  and  the  ownership 
of  the  soil.  On  all  this  I have  already  dwelt  at 
length;  I only  recur  to  it  here  in  explanation 
of  a position  which  may  appear  to  you  to  be 
perverse — the  position  of  one  who,  while  gen- 
uinely admiring  the  products  of  Western  intel- 
ligence, yet  doubts  whether  that  intelligence  has 
not  been  misapplied,  or  at  least  whether  its  di- 
rection has  not  been  so  one-sided  that  it  is  likely 
to  have  been  productive  of  as  much  harm  as  good. 
You  may,  indeed — and  I trust  you  will — rectify 
this  error  and  show  yourselves  as  ingenious  in 
organizing  men  as  you  have  been  in  dominating 
Nature.  But  meantime  we  may,  perhaps,  be 
pardoned  if  even  when  we  most  admire  we  yet 
hesitate  to  adopt  your  Western  methods,  and  feel 
that  the  advantages  which  might  possibly  ensue 
will  be  dearly  bought  by  the  disorders  that  have 
everywhere  accompanied  their  introduction. 

And  there  is  another  point  which  weighs  with 

[36] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


me,  one  less  obvious,  perhaps,  but  not  less  im- 
portant. In  any  society  it  must  always  be  the 
case  that  the  mass  of  men  are  absorbed  in  me- 
chanical labors.  It  is  so  in  ours  no  less,  though 
certainly  no  more,  than  in  yours;  and,  so  far, 
this  condition  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
affected  by  the  introduction  of  machinery.  But, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  every  society  there  are,  or 
should  be,  men  who  are  relieved  from  this  servi- 
tude to  matter  and  free  to  devote  themselves  to 
higher  ends.  In  China,  for  many  centuries  past, 
there  has  been  a class  of  men  set  apart  from  the 
first  to  the  pursuit  of  liberal  arts,  and  destined 
to  the  functions  of  government.  These  men 
form  no  close  hereditary  caste;  it  is  open  to 
anyone  to  join  them  who  possesses  the  requisite 
talent  and  inclination:  and  in  this  respect  our 
society  has  long  been  the  most  democratic  in  the 
world.  The  education  to  which  we  subject  this 
official  class  is  a matter  of  frequent  and  adverse 
comment  among  you,  and  it  is  not  my  intention 
here  to  undertake  its  defence.  What  I wish  to 
point  out  is  the  fact  that,  by  virtue  of  this  in- 
[37] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


stitution,  we  have  inculcated  and  we  maintain 
among  our  people  of  all  classes  a respect  for 
the  things  of  the  mind  and  of  the  spirit,  to  which 
it  would  be  hard  to  find  a parallel  in  Europe, 
and  of  which,  in  particular,  there  is  no  trace  in 
England.  In  China  letters  are  respected  not 
merely  to  a degree  but  in  a sense  which  must 
seem,  I think,  to  you  unintelligible  and  over- 
strained. But  there  is  a reason  for  it.  Our 
poets  and  literary  men  have  taught  their  suc- 
cessors, for  long  generations,  to  look  for  good 
not  in  wealth,  not  in  power,  not  in  miscellaneous 
activity,  but  in  a trained,  a choice,  an  exquisite 
appreciation  of  the  most  simple  and  universal 
relations  of  life.  To  feel,  and  in  order  to  feel 
to  express,  or  at  least  to  understand  the  expres- 
sion of  all  that  is  lovely  in  Nature,  of  all  that 
is  poignant  and  sensitive  in  man,  is  to  us  in 
itself  a sufficient  end.  A rose  in  a moonlit  gar- 
den, the  shadow  of  trees  on  the  turf,  almond 
bloom,  scent  of  pine,  the  wine-cup  and  the 
guitar;  these  and  the  pathos  of  life  and  death, 
the  long  embrace,  the  hand  stretched  out  in  vain, 
the  moment  that  glides  for  ever  away,  with  its 
[38] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

freight  of  music  and  light,  into  the  shadow  and 
hush  of  the  haunted  past,  all  that  we  have,  all 
that  eludes  us,  a bird  on  the  wing,  a perfume 
escaped  on  the  gale — to  all  these  things  we  are 
trained  to  respond,  and  the  response  is  what  we 
call  literature.  This  we  have;  this  you  cannot 
give  us;  but  this  you  may  so  easily  take  away. 
Amid  the  roar  of  looms  it  cannot  be  heard;  it 
cannot  be  seen  in  the  smoke  of  f actories ; it  is 
killed  by  the  wear  and  the  whirl  of  Western  life. 
And  when  I look  at  your  business  men,  the  men 
whom  you  most  admire;  when  I see  them  hour 
after  hour,  day  after  day,  year  after  year,  toil- 
ing in  the  mill  of  their  forced  and  undelighted 
labors ; when  I see  them  importing  the  anxieties 
of  the  day  into  their  scant  and  grudging  leisure, 
and  wearing  themselves  out  less  by  toil  than  by 
carking  and  illiberal  cares,  I reflect,  I confess, 
with  satisfaction  on  the  simpler  routine  of  our 
ancient  industry,  and  prize,  above  all  your  new 
and  dangerous  routes,  the  beaten  track  so  fa- 
miliar to  our  accustomed  feet  that  we  have  leis- 
ure, even  while  we  pace  it,  to  turn  our  gaze  up 
to  the  eternal  stars. 


[39] 


VI 


Among  Chinese  institutions  there  is  none  that 
provokes  the  European  mind  to  more  hostile  and 
contemptuous  comment  than  our  system  of 
government.  The  inadequate  salaries  of  our 
officials  and  the  consequent  temptation,  to  which 
they  frequently  succumb,  to  extort  money  by 
illegitimate  means,  is  productive  of  much  annoy- 
ance to  foreigners;  nor  have  I anything  to  say  in 
defence  of  a practice  so  manifestly  undesirable. 
At  the  same  time,  I cannot  but  note  that  cor- 
ruption of  this  kind  is  a far  less  serious  evil  in 
China  than  it  is,  when  it  prevails,  among  your- 
selves. With  you  the  function  of  government  is 
so  important  and  so  ubiquitous  that  you  can 
hardly  realize  the  condition  of  a people  that  is 
able  almost  wholly  to  dispense  with  it.  Yet  such 
is  our  case.  The  simple  and  natural  character 
of  our  civilization,  the  peaceable  nature  of  our 
people  (when  they  are  not  maddened  by  the  ag- 
[40] 


LETTERS  EROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


gression  of  foreigners),  above  all,  the  institution 
of  the  family,  itself  a little  state — a political, 
social,  and  economic  unit — these  and  other  facts 
have  rendered  us  independent  of  government 
control  to  an  extent  which  to  Europeans  may 
seem  incredible.  Neither  the  acts  nor  the  omis- 
sions of  the  authorities  at  Peking  have  any  real 
or  permanent  effect  on  the  life  of  our  masses, 
except  so  far  as  they  register  the  movements  of 
popular  sentiment  and  demand.  Otherwise,  as 
you  foreigners  know  to  your  cost,  they  remain 
a dead-letter.  The  Government  may  make  con- 
ventions and  treaties,  but  it  cannot  put  them  into 
effect,  except  in  so  far  as  they  are  endorsed  by 
public  opinion.  The  passive  resistance  of  so 
vast  a people,  rooted  in  a tradition  so  immemo- 
rial, will  defeat  in  the  future,  as  it  has  done  in 
the  past,  the  attempts  of  the  Western  Powers 
to  impose  their  will  on  the  nation  through  the 
agency  of  the  Government.  No  force  will  ever 
suffice  to  stir  that  huge  inertia.  The  whirlwind 
of  war  for  a moment  may  ruffle  the  surface  of 
the  sea,  may  fleck  with  foam  its  superficial  cur- 

I « ] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


rents;  it  will  never  shake  or  trouble  the  clear 
unfathomable  deep  which  is  the  still  and  brood- 
ing soul  of  China. 

If  our  people  are  ever  to  be  moved,  their  rea- 
son and  their  heart  must  be  convinced;  and  this 
lesson,  which  you  in  Europe  are  so  slow  to  learn, 
was  embodied  centuries  ago  in  the  practice  and 
theory  of  our  State.  Government  with  us  is 
based  on  the  consent  of  the  people  to  a degree 
which  you  of  the  West  can  hardly  understand, 
much  less  imitate.  What  you  have  striven  so 
vainly  to  achieve  by  an  increasingly  elaborate 
machinery  happens  among  us  by  the  mere  force 
of  facts.  Our  fundamental  institutions  are  no 
arbitrary  inventions  of  power ; they  are  the  form 
which  the  people  have  given  to  their  life.  No 
Government  created  and  no  Government  would 
think  of  modifying  them.  And  if  from  time 
to  time  it  becomes  desirable  to  add  to  them  such 
further  regulations  as  the  course  of  events  may 
seem  to  suggest,  these,  too,  are  introduced  only 
in  response  to  a real  demand,  and  after  proof 
made  of  their  efficacy  and  popularity.  Law,  in 
[42] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


a word,  is  not,  with  us,  a rule  imposed  from 
above;  it  is  the  formula  of  the  national  life;  and 
its  embodiment  in  practice  precedes  its  inscrip- 
tion in  a code.  Hence  it  is  that  in  China  gov- 
ernment is  neither  arbitrary  nor  indispensable. 
Destroy  our  authorities,  central  and  provincial, 
and  our  life  will  proceed  very  much  as  before. 
The  law  we  obey  is  the  law  of  our  own  nature, 
as  it  has  been  evolved  by  centuries  of  experience, 
and  to  this  we  continue  our  allegiance,  even 
though  the  external  sanction  be  withdrawn. 
Come  what  may,  the  family  remains,  with  all  that 
it  involves,  the  attitude  of  mind  remains,  the 
spirit  of  order,  industry,  and  thrift.  These  it 
is  that  make  up  China;  and  the  Governments 
we  have  passively  received  are  Governments  only 
so  long  as  they  understand  that  it  is  not  theirs 
to  govern,  but  merely  to  express  in  outward 
show,  to  formulate  and  define,  an  order  which 
in  essentials  they  must  accept  as  they  accept 
the  motions  of  the  heavens.  China  does  not 
change.  The  tumults  of  which  you  make  so 
much,  and  of  which  you  are  yourselves  the  cause, 
[43] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


are  no  signs  of  the  break-up  of  our  civilization. 
You  hear  the  breakers  roaring  on  the  shore;  but 
far  away  beyond  your  ken,  unsailed  by  ship  of 
yours,  stretch  to  the  blue  horizon  the  silent 
spaces  of  the  sea. 

How  different  is  the  conception  and  fact  of 
government  in  the  West ! Here  there  are  no 
fundamental  laws,  but  an  infinity  of  arbitrary 
rules.  Nothing  roots  except  what  has  been 
planted;  nothing  is  planted  but  what  must  be 
planted  again.  During  the  past  hundred  years 
you  have  dismantled  your  whole  society.  Prop- 
erty and  marriage,  religion,  morality,  distinctions 
of  rank  and  class,  all  that  is  most  important 
and  most  profound  in  human  relationships, 
has  been  torn  from  the  roots  and  floats  like 
wreckage  down  the  stream  of  time.  Hence 
the  activity  of  your  Governments,  for  it  is  only 
by  their  aid  that  your  society  holds  together  at 
all.  Government  with  you  is  thus  important  to 
an  extent  and  degree  happily  inconceivable  in 
the  East.  This  in  itself  appears  to  me  an  evil; 
but  it  is  one  that  I see  to  be  inevitable.  All  the 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


more  am  I surprised  at  what  I cannot  but  regard 
as  the  extraordinary  inefficiency  of  the  machinery 
on  which  you  rely  to  accomplish  so  vast  a work. 
It  is,  I am  aware,  hard,  perhaps  impossible,  to 
discover  or  devise  any  sure  and  certain  method 
of  selecting  competent  men ; but  surely  it  is 
strange  to  make  no  attempt  to  ascertain  or  secure 
any  degree  of  moral  or  intellectual  capacity  in 
those  to  whom  you  entrust  such  important  func- 
tions ! Our  own  plan  in  China  of  selecting  our 
rulers  by  competitive  examination  is  regarded 
by  you  with  a contempt  not  altogether  unde- 
served. Yet  you  adopt  it  yourselves  in  the  choice 
of  your  subordinate  officials;  and  it  has  at  least 
the  merit  of  embodying  the  rational  idea  that 
the  highest  places  in  the  Government  should  be 
open  to  all,  rich  or  poor,  who  have  given  proof 
of  ability  and  talent,  and  that  they  should  be 
open  to  no  others.  Compared  to  the  method  of 
election  it  appears  to  me  to  be  reason  itself. 
For  what  does  election  mean?  You  say  that  it 
means  representation  of  the  people;  but  do  you 
not  know  in  your  hearts  that  it  means,  and  can 
[45] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


mean,  nothing  of  the  kind?  What  is  really  rep- 
resented is  Interests.  And  in  what  are  Interests 
interested?  Your  reply,  I suspect,  will  be,  In 
public  abuses ! Landlords,  brewers,  railway  di- 
rectors— is  it  not  these  that  really  rule  you? 
And  must  it  not  be  so  while  your  society  is  con- 
stituted as  it  is?  There  is,  I am  aware,  a party 
which  hopes  to  bring  to  bear  against  these  the 
brute  and  overwhelming  force  of  the  Mass.  But 
such  a remedy,  even  if  it  were  practicable,  does 
not  commend  itself  to  my  judgment;  for  the 
Mass  in  your  society  is  itself  an  Interest.  The 
machinery  which  you  have  provided  appears 
to  aim  at  bringing  together  in  a cockpit  egotistic 
forces  bent  upon  private  goods,  in  order  that 
they  may  arrive,  by  dint  of  sheer  fighting,  at  a 
result  which  shall  represent  the  good  of  the 
whole.  It  is  perhaps  the  inveterate  respect,  in> 
herent  in  every  Chinaman,  for  the  authority  of 
morality  and  reason,  that  prevents  me  from  re- 
garding such  a procedure  with  the  enthusiasm 
or  even  the  toleration  which  it  seems  commonly 
to  arouse  among  yourselves.  When  problems  of 
[ ±6  ] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


such  vast  importance  have  devolved  upon,  and 
must  be  assumed  by,  a Government,  I cannot  but 
think  that  some  better  means  might  have  been 
devised  for  interesting  in  their  solution  the  best 
talent  of  the  nation.  And  I am  confirmed  in 
this  view  by  the  reflection  that  I have  met  in 
your  universities  and  elsewhere  men  who  have 
profoundly  studied  the  questions  your  Legis- 
lature is  expected  to  determine,  whose  intelli- 
gence is  clear,  whose  judgment  unbiassed,  whose 
enthusiasm  disinterested  and  pure,  but  who  can 
never  hope  for  a chance  of  putting  their  wisdom 
to  practical  effect,  because  their  temperament, 
their  training,  and  their  habit  of  life,  have  un- 
fitted them  for  the  ordeal  of  popular  election. 
To  be  a member  of  Parliament  is,  it  would  seem, 
a profession  in  itself,  and  the  qualities,  intellect- 
ual and  moral,  which  open  the  door  to  a public 
career  appear  to  be  distinct  from,  and  even  in- 
compatible with,  those  which  contribute  to  pub- 
lic utility. 


[47] 


VII 


To  grave  and  fundamental  distinctions  of  na- 
tional character  and  life  commonly  correspond 
similar  distinctions  in  religious  belief.  For  re- 
ligion is,  or  should  be,  the  soul  of  which  the 
State  is  the  body,  the  idea  which  informs  and 
perpetuates  institutions.  It  is  not,  I am  aware, 
in  this  sense  that  the  word  is  always  understood, 
for  religion  is  not  seldom  identified  with  super- 
stition. I propose,  however,  in  this  place  to  dis- 
tinguish the  two,  and  to  concern  myself  mainly 
with  what  I conceive  to  be  properly  termed  re- 
ligion. But  I note,  at  the  outset,  that  among 
the  masses  of  China  superstition  is  as  widely 
spread  as  among  those  of  any  European  country. 
Buddhism  and  Taoism  lend  themselves  with  us 
to  practices  and  beliefs  as  regrettable  and  ab- 
surd as  any  that  are  fostered  by  Christianity 
among  yourselves.  Our  people,  like  yours,  hope 
by  ritual  and  prayer  to  affect  the  course  of  the 
[48] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


elements  or  to  compass  private  and  material 
benefits;  they  believe  in  spirits  and  goblins,  as 
Roman  Catholics  do  in  saints;  they  worship 
idols,  practise  magic,  and  foster  the  impositions 
of  priests.  But  all  this  I pass  by  as  extraneous 
to  true  religion.  I regard  it  merely  as  a mani- 
festation of  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  a 
vent  for  the  peccant  humors  of  the  individual 
soul.  Different  indeed  is  the  creed  and  the  cult 
on  which  our  civilization  is  founded;  and  it  is 
to  this,  which  has  been  so  much  misunderstood 
by  Europeans,  that  I propose  to  devote  a few 
words  of  explanation. 

Confucianism,  it  is  sometimes  said,  is  not  a 
religion  at  all;  and  if  by  religion  be  meant  a set 
of  dogmatic  propositions  dealing  with  a super- 
natural world  radically  distinct  from  our  own, 
the  statement  is,  no  doubt,  strictly  true.  It  was, 
in  fact,  one  of  the  objects  of  Confucius  to  dis- 
courage preoccupation  with  the  supernatural, 
and  the  true  disciple  endeavors  in  this  respect 
to  follow  in  his  master’s  footsteps.  “Beware  of 
religion,”  a Mandarin  says,  meaning  “beware  of 
[49] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


superstition”;  and  in  this  sense,  but  in  this  sense 
only,  Confucianism  is  irreligious.  Again,  it  is 
said  that  Confucianism  is  merely  an  ethical  sys- 
tem; and  this,  too,  is  true,  in  so  far  as  its  whole 
aim  and  purport  is  to  direct  and  inspire  right 
conduct.  But,  on  the  other  hand — and  this  is 
the  point  I wish  to  make — it  is  not  merely  a 
teaching,  but  a life.  The  principles  it  enjoins 
are  those  which  are  actually  embodied  in  the 
structure  of  our  society,  so  that  they  are  incul- 
cated not  merely  by  written  and  spoken  word, 
but  by  the  whole  habit  of  everyday  experience. 
The  unity  of  the  family  and  the  State,  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  worship  of  ancestors,  is  the  basis 
not  merely  of  the  professed  creed,  but  of  the 
actual  practice  of  a Chinaman.  To  whatever 
other  faith  he  may  adhere — Buddhist,  Taoist, 
Christian — this  is  the  thing  that  really  matters 
to  him.  To  him  the  generations  past  and  the 
generations  to  come  form  with  those  that  are 
alive  one  single  whole.  All  live  eternally, 
though  it  is  only  some  that  happen  at  any  mo- 
ment to  live  upon  earth.  Ancestor-worship  is 
[50] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

thus  the  symbol  of  a social  idea  immense  in  its 
force  to  consolidate  and  bind.  Its  eifects  in 
China  must  be  seen  to  be  believed ; but  you  have 
a further  example  in  a civilization  with  which 
you  are  better  acquainted — I mean,  of  course, 
the  civilization  of  Rome. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  and  most  striking 
aspect  of  our  national  religion;  but  there  is  an- 
other hardly  less  important  in  its  bearing  on 
social  life.  Confucianism  is  the  exponent  of  the 
ideal  of  work.  Your  eighteenth-century  obser- 
vers, who  laid  so  much  stress  on  the  ritual  of  the 
Emperor’s  yearly  ploughing,  were  nearer  to  the 
heart  of  our  civilization  than  many  later  and  less 
sympathetic  inquirers.  The  duty  of  man  to 
labor,  and  primarily  to  labor  on  the  soil,  is  a 
fundamental  postulate  of  our  religion.  Hence 
the  worship  of  Mother  Earth,  the  source  of  all 
increase ; hence  the  worship  of  Heaven,  the  giver 
of  light  and  rain ; and  hence  also  that  social  sys- 
tem whose  aim  is  to  secure  a general  access  to 
the  soil.  The  willing  dedication  of  all,  in 
brotherhood  and  peace,  to  labor  blessed  by  the 
[51] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


powers  of  heaven  and  earth,  such  is  the  simple, 
intelligible  ideal  we  have  set  before  our  people, 
such  is  the  conception  we  have  embodied  in  our 
institutions.  And  if  you  seek  more  than  this, 
a metaphysical  system  to  justify  and  explain 
our  homely  creed,  that  too  we  have  provided  for 
our  scholars.  Humanity,  they  are  taught,  is  a 
Being  spiritual  and  eternal,  manifesting  itself 
in  time  in  the  series  of  generations.  This  Being 
is  the  mediator  between  heaven  and  earth,  be- 
tween the  ultimate  ideal  and  the  existing  fact. 
By  labor,  incessant  and  devout,  to  raise  earth  to 
heaven,  to  realize,  in  fact,  the  good  that  as  yet 
exists  only  in  idea — that  is  the  end  and  purpose 
of  human  life;  and  in  fulfilling  it  we  achieve 
and  maintain  our  unity  each  with  every  other, 
and  all  with  the  Divine.  Here,  surely,  is  a faith 
not  unworthy  to  be  called  a religion.  I do  not 
say  that  it  is  consciously  held  by  the  mass  of 
the  people,  for  in  no  State  does  the  mass  of  the 
people  reflect.  But  I claim  for  us  that  the  life 
of  our  masses  is  so  ordered  and  disposed  as  to 
accord  with  the  postulates  of  our  creed;  that 
[52] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


they  practise,  if  they  do  not  profess,  the  tenets 
of  our  sages;  and  that  the  two  cardinal  ideas  on 
which  every  society  should  rest,  brotherhood  and 
the  dignity  of  labor,  are  brought  home  to  them 
in  direct  and  unmistakable  form  by  the  structure 
of  our  secular  institutions. 

Such,  then,  in  a few  words,  is  the  essence  of 
Confucianism,  as  it  appears  to  an  educated 
Chinaman.  Far  harder  is  it  for  me,  though  I 
have  spent  so  long  in  Europe,  to  appreciate  the 
significance  of  Christianity.  But  perhaps  I may 
be  pardoned  if  I endeavor  to  record  my  im- 
pressions, such  as  they  are,  gathered  from  some 
study  of  your  sacred  books,  your  history,  and 
your  contemporary  life.  In  such  observations  as 
I have  made  I have  had  in  view  the  question  not 
so  much  of  the  truth  of  your  religion — of  that 
I do  not  feel  competent  to  judge — as  of  its 
bearing  upon  your  social  institutions.  And  here, 
more  than  anywhere,  I am  struck  by  the  wide 
discrepancy  between  your  civilization  and  ours. 
I cannot  see  that  your  society  is  based  upon  re- 
ligion at  all;  nor  does  that  surprise  me,  if  I 
[53] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


have  rightly  apprehended  the  character  of 
Christianity.  For  the  ideal  which  I seem  to  find 
enshrined  in  your  gospels  and  embodied  in  the 
discussions  of  your  divines  is  one  not  of  labor 
on  earth,  but  of  contemplation  in  heaven;  not 
of  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  but  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints.  Whether  this  be  a higher  ideal 
than  our  own  I do  not  venture  to  pronounce; 
but  I cannot  but  hold  it  to  be  less  practicable. 
It  must  be  difficult,  one  would  think,  if  not  im- 
possible to  found  any  stable  society  on  the  con- 
ception that  life  upon  earth  is  a mere  episode 
in  a drama  whose  centre  of  action  lies  elsewhere. 
An  indifference  to  what,  from  a more  mundane 
point  of  view,  must  appear  to  be  fundamental 
considerations,  a confusion  of  temporal  distinc- 
tions in  the  white  blaze  of  eternity,  a haphazard 
organization  of  those  details  of  corporate  life 
the  serious  preoccupation  with  which  would  be 
hardly  compatible  with  religion — such  would 
appear  to  be  the  natural  result  of  a genuine 
profession  of  Christianity.  And  such,  if  I un- 
derstand it  aright,  was  the  character  of  your 
[54] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


civilization  in  what  you  describe  as  the  Ages  of 
Faith.  Asceticism,  monastic  vows,  the  domina- 
tion of  priests,  the  petty  interests  of  life  and 
death  overshadowed  and  dwarfed  by  the  tre- 
mendous issues  of  heaven  and  hell,  beggary 
sanctified,  wealth  contemned,  reason  stunted, 
imagination  hypertrophied,  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  powers  at  war,  body  at  feud  with  soul, 
everywhere  division,  conflict,  confusion,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  insanity — such  was  the  char- 
acter of  that  extraordinary  epoch  in  Western 
history  when  the  Christian  conception  made  a 
bid  to  embody  itself  in  fact.  It  was  the  life- 
and-death  struggle  of  a grandiose  ideal  against 
all  the  facts  of  the  material  and  moral  universe. 
And  in  that  struggle  the  ideal  was  worsted. 
From  the  dust  of  battle  the  Western  world 
emerged,  as  it  had  entered,  secular:  avowedly 
worldly,  frankly  curious,  bent  with  a passionate 
zeal  on  the  mastery  of  all  the  forces  of  nature, 
on  beauty,  wealth,  intelligence,  character,  power. 
From  that  time  on,  although  you  still  profess 
Christianity,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  chris- 
[55] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


tianize  your  institutions.  On  the  contrary,  it  has 
been  your  object  to  sweep  away  every  remnant 
of  the  old  order,  to  dissociate  Church  from 
State,  ritual  and  belief  from  action.  You  have 
abandoned  your  society  frankly  to  economic  and 
political  forces,  with  results  which  I have  en- 
deavored in  an  earlier  letter  to  characterize. 

But  while  thus,  on  the  one  hand,  your  society 
has  evolved  on  a purely  material  basis,  on  the 
other  religion  has  not  ceased  to  be  recognized 
among  you.  Only,  cut  off  from  its  natural  root 
in  social  institutions,  it  has  assumed  forms  which 
I cannot  but  think  to  be  either  otiose  or  dan- 
gerous. Those  who  profess  Christianity — and 
there  are  few  who,  in  one  way  or  another,  do 
not — either  profess  it  only  with  their  lips,  and 
having  in  this  way  satisfied  those  claims  of  the 
ideal  from  which  no  human  being  is  altogether 
free,  turn  back  with  an  unencumbered  mind  and 
conscience  to  the  pursuit  of  egotistic  ends;  or 
else,  being  seriously  possessed  by  the  teachings 
of  Christ,  they  find  themselves  almost  inevitably 
driven  into  the  position  of  revolutionists.  For 
[56] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


those  teachings,  if  they  be  fully  accepted  and 
fairly  interpreted,  must  be  seen  to  be  incom- 
patible with  the  whole  structure  of  your  society. 
Enunciated,  centuries  ago,  by  a mild  Oriental 
enthusiast,  unlettered,  untravelled,  inexperienced, 
they  are  remarkable  not  more  for  their  tender 
and  touching  appeal  to  brotherly  love  than  for 
their  aversion  or  indifference  to  all  other  ele- 
ments of  human  excellence.  The  subject  of 
Augustus  and  Tiberius  lived  and  died  unaware 
of  the  history  and  destinies  of  imperial  Rome; 
the  contemporary  of  Virgil  and  of  Livy  could 
not  read  the  language  in  which  they  wrote. 
Provincial  by  birth,  mechanic  by  trade,  by  tem- 
perament a poet  and  a mystic,  he  enjoyed  in  the 
course  of  his  brief  life  few  opportunities,  and  he 
evinced  little  inclination,  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  rudiments  of  the  science  whose  end  is 
the  prosperity  of  the  State.  The  production 
and  distribution  of  wealth,  the  disposition  of 
power,  the  laws  that  regulate  labor,  property, 
trade,  these  were  matters  as  remote  from  his 
interests  as  they  were  beyond  his  comprehension. 
[ 57  ] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


N^ver  was  man  better  equipped  to  inspire  a re- 
ligious sect;  never  one  worse  to  found  or  direct 
a commonwealth.  Yet  this  man  it  is  whose  naive 
maxims  of  self-abnegation  have  been  accepted 
as  gospel  by  the  nations  of  the  West,  the  type 
of  all  that  is  predatory,  violent,  and  aggressive. 
No  wonder  your  history  has  been  one  long  and 
lamentable  tale  of  antagonism,  tumult,  carnage, 
and  confusion!  No  wonder  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  powers  have  oscillated  between  open 
war  and  truces  as  discreditable  to  the  one  as  to 
the  other!  No  wonder  that  down  to  the  present 
day  every  man  among  you  who  has  been  gen- 
uinely inspired  with  the  spirit  of  your  religion 
has  shrunk  in  horror  from  the  society  which 
purports  to  have  adopted  its  principles  as  its 
own ! It  is  the  Nemesis  of  an  idealist  creed  that 
it  cannot  inform  realities;  it  can  but  mass  to- 
gether outside  and  in  opposition  to  the  estab- 
lished order  the  forces  that  should  have  shaped 
and  controlled  it  from  within.  The  spirit  re- 
mains uneinbodied,  the  body  uninformed.  So 
is  has  been  and  so  it  is  with  this  polity  of  yours. 

[58] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


It  purports  to  represent  a superhuman  ideal;  in 
reality,  it  does  not  represent  even  one  that  is 
human.  It  is  of  the  earth,  earthy;  while  from 
heaven  far  above  cries,  like  a ghost’s,  the  voice 
of  the  Nazarene,  as  pure,  as  clear,  as  ineffectual, 
as  when  first  it  flung  from  the  shores  of  Galilee 
its  challenge  to  the  world-sustaining  power  of 
Rome. 

The  view  which  I have  thus  ventured  to  give, 
candidly,  as  I feel  it,  of  the  relation  of  your 
society  to  your  religion,  will,  I am  aware,  be  re- 
ceived by  most  of  my  readers  with  astonishment, 
if  not  with  indignation.  Permit  me,  then,  to 
illustrate  and  confirm  it  by  an  example  so  patent 
and  palpable  that  it  cannot  fail,  I think,  to  make 
some  appeal  even  to  those  who  are  most  unwill- 
ing to  face  the  truth. 

If  there  is  one  feature  more  marked  than 
another  in  the  teaching  of  Christ  it  is  his  con- 
demnation of  every  form  of  violence.  No  one 
can  read  the  Gospels  with  an  unprejudiced  mind 
without  being  struck  by  the  emphasis  with  which 
he  reiterates  this  doctrine.  “Whosoever  shall 
[ 59] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the 
other  also.”  These  are  his  words,  and  they  are 
spoken  in  sober  earnestness,  not  in  metaphor, 
nor  yet  as  a counsel  of  perfection,  something 
that  should  be  but  cannot  be  put  into  eifect. 
No!  they  are  the  words  of  conviction  and  truth, 
backed  by  the  whole  character  and  practice  of 
their  author.  The  principle  they  embody  may, 
of  course,  be  disputed.  It  may  be  held — as  in 
fact  it  always  has  been  held  by  the  majority  of 
men  in  all  ages — that  force  is  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  society;  that  without  it  there 
could  be  no  security,  no  order,  no  peace.  But 
one  who  holds  this  view  cannot  be  a Christian, 
in  the  proper  sense  of  a follower  of  Christ.  If, 
then,  as  is  undoubtedly  the  case,  this  view  has 
been  universally  held  throughout  their  whole 
history  by  the  nations  of  the  West,  then,  what- 
ever they  may  call  themselves,  they  cannot  be 
truly  Christian.  Yet  this  consequence  they  have 
always  refused  to  accept.  They  have  inter- 
preted the  words  of  their  founder  to  mean  the 
reverse  of  what  they  say,  and  have  conceived 
[60] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


him,  apparently  without  any  sense  of  the  sole- 
cism they  were  perpetrating,  to  be  the  defender 
and  champion  not  only  of  their  whole  system 
of  law,  based  as  it  is  on  the  prison  and  the  scaf- 
fold, but  of  all  their  wars,  even  of  those  which 
to  the  natural  sense  of  mankind  must  appear  to 
be  the  least  defensible  and  the  most  iniquitous. 
In  proof  of  what  I say — if  proof  be  required — 
I need  not  recur  to  historical  examples.  It  will 
be  enough  to  refer  to  the  case  which  is  naturally 
most  present  to  m3'  mind — the  recent  attack  of 
the  Western  Powers  on  China.  That  there  was 
grave  provocation,  I am  not  concerned  to  deny, 
though  it  was  not  with  us  that  the  provocation 
originated.  But  what  fills  me  with  amazement 
and  even,  if  I must  be  frank,  with  horror,  is 
the  fact  that  the  nations  of  Europe  should  at- 
tempt to  justify  their  acts  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ;  and  that  there  should 
be  found  among  them  a Christian  potentate  who, 
in  sending  forth  his  soldiers  on  an  errand  of 
revenge,  should  urge  them,  in  the  name  of  him 
who  bade  us  turn  the  other  cheek,  not  merely 
[61] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  attack,  not  merely  to  kill,  but  to  kill  without 
quarter!  What  further  proof  is  needed  of  the 
truth  of  my  general  proposition  that  the  religion 
you  profess,  whatever  effect  it  may  have  on  in- 
dividual lives,  has  little  or  none  on  public  policy  ? 
It  may  inspire,  here  and  there,  some  retired 
saint;  it  has  never  inspired  those  who  control 
the  State.  What  use  is  it,  then,  to  profess  that, 
in  essence,  it  is  a religion  higher  than  ours?  I 
care  not  to  dispute  on  ground  so  barren.  “By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,”  said  your  own 
prophets;  and  to  their  fruits  I am  content  to 
appeal.  Confucianism  may,  as  you  affirm,  be 
no  religion  at  all;  it  may  be  an  inferior  ethical 
code;  but  it  has  made  of  the  Chinese  the  one 
nation  in  all  the  history  of  the  world  who  gen- 
uinely abhor  violence  and  reverence  reason  and 
right.  And  here,  lest  you  think  that  I am 
biassed,  let  me  call  to  my  aid  the  testimony  of 
the  one  among  your  countrymen  who  has  known 
us  intimately  and  long,  and  whose  services  to 
our  State  will  never  be  forgotten  by  any  patriotic 
Chinaman.  In  place  of  the  ignorant  diatribes 
[62] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

of  your  special  correspondents,  listen  for  a mo- 
ment to  the  voice  of  Sir  Robert  Hart: 

“They  are,”  he  says  of  the  Chinese,  “well- 
behaved,  law-abiding,  intelligent,  economical, 
and  industrious;  they  can  learn  anything  and 
do  anything;  they  are  punctiliously  polite,  they 
worship  talent,  and  they  believe  in  right  so 
firmly  that  they  scorn  to  think  it  requires  to  be 
supported  or  enforced  by  might;  they  delight 
in  literature,  and  everywhere  they  have  their  lit- 
erary clubs  and  coteries  for  learning  and  dis- 
cussing each  other’s  essays  and  verses ; they 
possess  and  practise  an  admirable  system  of 
ethics,  and  they  are  generous,  charitable,  and 
fond  of  good  works;  they  never  forget  a favor, 
they  make  rich  return  for  any  kindness,  and, 
though  they  know  money  will  buy  service,  a man 
must  be  more  than  wealthy  to  win  public  esteem 
and  respect;  they  are  practical,  teachable,  and 
wonderfully  gifted  with  common-sense;  they 
are  excellent  artisans,  reliable  workmen,  and  of 
a good  faith  that  everyone  acknowledges  and 
admires  in  their  commercial  dealings ; in  no 
[63] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


country  that  is  or  was,  has  the  commandment 
‘Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother’  been  so  re- 
ligiously obeyed,  or  so  fully  and  without  excep- 
tion given  effect  to,  and  it  is  in  fact  the  keynote 
of  their  family,  social,  official,  and  national  life, 
and  because  it  is  so  ‘their  days  are  long  in  the 
land  God  has  given  them.’  ” 

Thus  Sir  Robert  Hart.  I ask  no  better  testi- 
monial. Here  are  no  superhuman  virtues,  no 
abnegation  of  self,  no  fanatic  repudiation  of 
fundamental  facts  of  human  nature.  But  here 
is  a life  according  to  a rational  ideal;  and  here 
is  a belief  in  that  ideal  so  effective  and  profound 
that  it  has  gone  far  to  supersede  the  use  of  force. 
“They  believe  in  right,”  says  Sir  Robert  Hart — 
let  me  quote  it  once  more — “they  believe  in  right 
so  firmly  that  they  scorn  to  think  it  requires  to 
be  supported  or  enforced  by  might.”  Yes,  it 
is  we  who  do  not  accept  it  that  practise  the 
Gospel  of  peace;  it  is  you  who  accept  it  that 
trample  it  underfoot.  And — irony  of  ironies  ! — it 
is  the  nations  of  Christendom  who  have  come 
to  us  to  teach  us  by  sword  and  fire  that  Right 
[64] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


in  this  world  is  powerless  unless  it  be  supported 
by  Might ! Oh,  do  not  doubt  that  we  shall  learn 
the  lesson ! And  woe  to  Europe  when  we  have 
acquired  it!  You  are  arming  a nation  of  four 
hundred  millions ! a nation  which,  until  you 
came,  had  no  better  wish  than  to  live  at  peace 
with  themselves  and  all  the  world.  In  the  name 
of  Christ  you  have  sounded  the  call  to  arms ! 
In  the  name  of  Confucius  we  respond! 


[65] 


VIII 


Hitherto  I have  avoided  any  discussion  in  de- 
tail of  the  existing  political  and  commercial 
relations  between  ourselves  and  the  West,  and 
of  the  events  which  led  up  to  the  situation  we 
all  deplore.  I have  endeavored  rather  to  enlist 
your  sympathies  in  the  general  character  of  our 
civilization,  to  note  the  salient  points  in  which 
it  differs  from  your  own,  and  to  bring  into  relief 
the  more  fundamental  and  permanent  conditions 
which  render  an  understanding  between  us  so 
difficult  and  so  precarious.  I cannot,  however, 
disguise  from  myself  that  even  a sympathetic 
reader  may  fairly  demand  of  me  something 
more;  and  that  if  I am  to  satisfy  him,  I am 
bound,  however  unwillingly,  to  enter  upon  the 
field  of  current  controversy.  For,  he  may  rea- 
sonably inquire.  If  it  be  really  true  that  your 
people  possess  the  qualities  you  ascribe  to  them, 
if  they  be  indeed  so  just,  so  upright,  so  averse 
[66] 


LETTERS  EROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

to  violence,  how  is  it  that  they  have  committed 
the  greatest  breach  of  international  comity  that 
is  known  in  the  history  of  the  civilized  world? 
How  is  it  that  they  have  been  guilty  of  acts 
which  have  shocked  and  outraged  the  moral  sense 
of  communities,  according  to  you,  less  cultured 
and  humane  than  themselves? 

In  reply,  I will  urge  that  I have  never  as- 
serted that  the  Chinese  are  saints.  I have  said, 
and  I still  maintain,  that  if  they  are  left  to 
themselves,  if  the  order  to  which  they  are  ac- 
customed is  not  violently  disturbed,  they  are  the 
most  peaceful  and  law-abiding  nation  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  If,  then,  they  have  broken 
loose  from  their  secular  restraints,  if  they  have 
shown  for  a moment  those  claws  of  the  brute 
which  no  civilization,  be  it  yours  or  ours,  though 
it  may  sheathe,  will  ever  draw,  the  very  violence 
of  the  outbreak  serves  only  to  prove  how  intense 
must  have  been  the  provocation.  Do  you  realize 
what  that  provocation  was  ? I doubt  it ! Per- 
mit me  then  briefly  to  record  the  facts. 

When  first  your  traders  came  to  China  it  was 

[67] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


not  at  our  invitation;  yet  we  received  them,  if 
not  with  enthusiasm,  at  least  with  tolerance.  So 
long  as  they  were  content  to  observe  our  regu- 
lations we  were  willing  to  sanction  their  traffic, 
but  always  on  the  condition  that  it  should  not 
disturb  our  social  and  political  order.  To  this 
condition,  in  earlier  days,  your  countrymen  con- 
sented to  conform,  and  for  many  years,  in  spite 
of  occasional  disputes,  there  was  no  serious 
trouble  between  them  and  us.  The  trouble  arose 
over  a matter  in  regard  to  which  you  yourselves 
have  hardly  ventured  to  defend  your  own  con- 
duct. A considerable  part  of  your  trade  was 
the  trade  in  opium.  The  use  of  this  drug,  we 
observed,  was  destroying  the  health  and  the 
morals  of  our  people,  and  we  therefore  pro- 
hibited the  trade.  Your  merchants,  however, 
evaded  the  law;  opium  was  smuggled  in;  till  at 
last  we  were  driven  to  take  the  matter  into  our 
own  hands  and  to  seize  and  destroy  the  whole 
stock  of  the  forbidden  drug.  Your  Government 
made  our  action  an  excuse  for  war.  You  in- 
[68] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


vaded  our  territory,  exacted  an  indemnity, 
and  took  from  us  the  island  of  Hong-Kong. 
Was  this  an  auspicious  beginning?  Was  it 
calculated  to  impress  us  with  a sense  of  the 
justice  and  fair  play  of  the  British  nation? 
Years  went  on;  a petty  dispute  about  the 
privileges  of  the  flag  — a dispute  in  which 
we  still  believe  that  we  were  in  the  right — 
brought  us  once  more  into  collision  with  you. 
You  made  the  unfortunate  conflict  an  excuse  for 
new  demands.  In  conjunction  with  the  French 
you  occupied  our  capital  and  imposed  upon  us 
terms  which  you  would  never  have  dared  to 
offer  to  a European  nation.  We  submitted  be- 
cause we  must;  we  were  not  a military  Power. 
But  do  you  suppose  our  sense  of  justice  was  not 
outraged?  Or  later,  when  every  Power  in 
Europe  on  some  pretext  or  other  has  seized  and 
retained  some  part  of  our  territory,  do  you  sup- 
pose because  we  cannot  resist  that  we  do  not 
feel?  To  a Chinaman  who  reviews  the  history 
of  our  relations  with  you  during  the  past  sixty 

[69] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


years  and  more  must  you  not  naturally  appear 
to  be  little  better  than  robbers  and  pirates  ? 
True,  such  a view  is  unduly  harsh,  and  I do  not 
myself  altogether  share  it.  A study  of  your 
official  documents  has  convinced  me  that  you 
genuinely  believe  that  you  have  had  on  your 
side  a certain  measure  of  right,  and  I am  too 
well  aware  of  the  complexity  of  all  human  affairs 
to  deny  that  there  may  be  something  in  your 
point  of  view.  Still,  I would  ask  you  to  consider 
the  broad  facts  of  the  situation,  dismissing  the 
interminable  controversies  that  arise  on  every 
point  of  detail.  Which  of  us  throughout  has 
been  the  aggressor — we  who,  putting  our  case 
at  the  worst,  were  obstinately  resolved  to  main- 
tain our  society,  customs,  laws,  and  polity 
against  the  influences  of  an  alien  civilization,  or 
you  who,  bent  on  commercial  gains,  were  deter- 
mined at  all  cost  to  force  an  entrance  into  our 
territory  and  to  introduce  along  with  your  goods 
the  leaven  of  your  culture  and  ideas?  If,  in 
the  collision  that  inevitably  ensued,  we  gave 
cause  of  offence,  we  had  at  least  the  excuse  of 
[70] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


self-preservation.  Our  wrongs,  if  wrongs  they 
were,  were  episodes  in  a substantial  right;  but 
yours  were  themselves  the  substance  of  your 
action. 

Consider  for  a moment  the  conditions  you 
have  imposed  on  a proud  and  ancient  empire, 
an  empire  which  for  centuries  has  believed  itself 
to  be  at  the  head  of  civilization.  You  have 
compelled  us,  against  our  will,  to  open  our  ports 
to  your  trade;  you  have  forced  us  to  permit  the 
introduction  of  a drug  which  we  believe  is  ruin- 
ing our  people;  you  have  exempted  your  subjects 
residing  among  us  from  the  operation  of  our 
laws;  you  have  appropriated  our  coasting  traf- 
fic; you  claim  the  traffic  of  our  inland  waters. 
Every  attempt  on  our  part  to  resist  your  demands 
has  been  followed  by  new  claims  and  new  ag- 
gressions. And  yet  all  this  time  you  have  posed 
as  civilized  peoples  dealing  with  barbarians. 
You  have  compelled  us  to  receive  your  mission- 
aries, and  when  they  by  their  ignorant  zeal  have 
provoked  our  people  to  rise  in  mass  against 
them,  that  again  you  have  made  an  excuse  for 
[71] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


new  depredations,  till  we,  not  unnaturally,  have 
come  to  believe  that  the  cross  is  the  pioneer  of 
the  swmrd,  and  that  the  only  use  you  have  for 
your  religion  is  to  use  it  as  a weapon  of  war. 
Conceive  for  a moment  the  feelings  of  an  Eng- 
lishman subjected  to  similar  treatment;  conceive 
that  we  had  permanently  occupied  Liverpool, 
Bristol,  Plymouth;  that  we  had  jilanted  on  your 
territory  thousands  of  men  whom  we  had  ex- 
empted from  your  laws;  that  along  your  coasts 
and  navigable  rivers  our  vessels  were  driving 
out  yours;  that  we  had  insisted  on  your  admit- 
ting spirits  duty  free  to  the  manifest  ruin  of 
your  population ; and  that  we  had  planted  in  all 
your  principal  towns  agents  to  counteract  the 
teachings  of  your  Church  and  undermine  the 
whole  fabric  of  habitual  belief  on  which  the 
stability  of  your  society  depends.  Imagine  that 
you  had  to  submit  to  all  this.  Would  you  be 
so  greatly  surprised,  would  you  really  even  be 
indignant,  if  you  found  one  day  the  Chinese  Le- 
gation surrounded  by  a howling  mob  and  Con- 
fucian  missionaries  everywhere  hunted  tc  death? 

[72] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


What  right  then  have  you  to  be  surprised,  what 
right  have  you  to  be  indignant  at  even  the  worst 
that  has  taken  place  in  China?  What  is  there 
so  strange  or  monstrous  in  our  conduct  ? A 
Legation,  you  say,  is  sacrosanct  by  the  law  of 
nations.  Yes;  but  remember  that  it  was  at  the 
point  of  the  sword  that  you  forced  us  to  receive 
Embassies  whose  presence  we  have  always  re- 
garded as  a sign  of  national  humiliation.  But 
our  mobs  were  barbarous  and  cruel.  Alas ! yes. 
And  your  troops?  And  your  troops,  nations  of 
Christendom?  Ask  the  once  fertile  land  from 
Peking  to  the  coast;  ask  the  corpses  of  murdered 
men  and  outraged  women  and  children ; ask 
the  innocent  mingled  indiscriminately  with  the 
guilty;  ask  the  Christ,  the  lover  of  men,  whom 
you  profess  to  serve,  to  judge  between  us  who 
rose  in  mad  despair  to  save  our  country  and  you 
who,  avenging  crime  with  crime,  did  not  pause 
to  reflect  that  the  crime  you  avenged  was  the 
fruit  of  your  own  iniquity ! 

Well,  it  is  over — over,  at  least,  for  the  mo- 
ment. I do  not  wish  to  dwell  upon  the  past. 

[73] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Yet  the  lesson  of  the  past  is  our  only  guide  to  the 
policy  of  the  future.  And  unless  you  of  the 
West  will  come  to  realize  the  truth;  unless  you 
will  understand  that  the  events  which  have 
shaken  Europe  are  the  Nemesis  of  a long  course 
of  injustice  and  oppression;  unless  you  will 
learn  that  the  profound  opposition  between  your 
civilization  and  ours  gives  no  more  ground  why 
you  should  regard  us  as  barbarians  than  we  you ; 
unless  you  will  treat  us  as  a civilized  Power  and 
respect  our  customs  and  our  laws;  unless  you 
will  accord  us  the  treatment  you  would  accord 
to  any  European  nation  and  refrain  from  ex- 
acting conditions  you  would  never  dream  of 
imposing  on  a Western  Power — unless  you  will 
do  this,  there  is  no  hope  of  any  peace  between 
us.  You  have  humiliated  the  proudest  nation  in 
the  world;  you  have  outraged  the  most  upright 
and  just;  with  what  results  is  now  abundantly 
manifest.  If  ignorance  was  your  excuse,  let  it 
be  your  excuse  no  longer.  Learn  to  understand 
us,  and  in  doing  so  learn  better  to  understand 
yourselves.  To  contribute  to  this  end  has  been 
[74] 


LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


my  only  object  in  writing  and  publishing  these 
letters.  If  I have  offended,  I regret  it;  but  if 
it  is  the  truth  that  offends,  for  that  I owe  and 
I offer  no  apology. 


THE  END. 


\ 75  ] 


